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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

BOMBERS HOPEFUL DRESSLER WILL PLAY IN WEEK 2

It's been a tough start with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for Weston Dressler.

The all-star slotback signed a two-year deal with Winnipeg in January reportedly worth $350,000 after being released for financial reasons by the Saskatchewan Roughriders. But after missing most of training camp with an undisclosed ailment Dressler suffered a head injury in the first quarter of the Bombers' season-opening 22-14 loss to Montreal on Friday.

Dressler was back at Investors Group Field on Monday but didn't practise with the Bombers. However, head coach Mike O'Shea is hopeful Dressler will play Friday when Winnipeg visits the Calgary Stampeders.

Dressler, one of GM Kyle Walters' big-name free-agent signings this off-season, had three catches for 22 yards versus Montreal. On his final reception, Dressler was running towards the sideline when he was hit by rookie Alouettes cornerback Ethan Davis.

Both players lowered their head just prior to contact with the impact of the collision knocking Dressler's helmet off.

Dressler spent eight seasons with Saskatchewan, five times surpassing the 1,000-yard receiving plateau. A two-time CFL all-star, the 31-year-old North Dakota native helped the Riders win the '13 Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium.

He amassed 539 career catches for 7,797 yards and 50 touchdowns with Saskatchewan.

4 comments:

>> O'Shea wouldn't say if Dressler had suffered a concussion <<Of course O'Shea won't admit to Weston suffering a concussion. WHY? Simply because if he does allow Dressler to play there will be an outcry from fans and media alike. You don't have to be a Dr to know that Weston did in fact suffer a concussion. When Dressler moved his helmet away from his body you could see he had lost his faculties. He was severely woozy and his head and upper body was swaying while his eyes were out of sorts. I've played enough hockey and football to know when a players head has suffered a brain movement injury. For Weston Dressler's sake I hope he does not play this next game. The Bombers are desperate after all those free agent signings and getting their ass kicked at home. So if Weston is medically borderline O'Shea may be willing to make a bad jugjement call here.

It's not up to O'Shea... it's not even a decision by the training staff. The new protocols in place have the players doing a test on an i-pad. If he cannot meet his pre-season, when healthy score on the test, he does not return to play. Dressler will not play until he is healthy. With head trauma, there is no messing around with guessing or potentially putting players in harms way.

I would suggest that it is in fact a Dr that is hired by the team and is part of the training team. He is not going to adhere to pressure by head coaches and such. But we did see a player or 2 suffer a concussion last year and played the next week. Copied and pasted from COMPLEX Sports 2014 article. Four out of the CFL’s nine teams are currently using the K-D test for Concussion protocol. The Edmonton Eskimos, the Calgary Stampeders, the B.C. Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The baseline tests were conducted during spring training camp. The King-Devick test is a timed visual examination in which a player rapidly reads aloud a series of lines of non-sequential and irregularly spaced numbers, which are then measured against a baseline test performed at the beginning of the season. The test, created in 1976 and performed on the sidelines, is setup to remove the player from the game if the player’s test scores are below their baseline. So far, the K-D test has been heralded as a “highly accurate” tool to pick up brain injury, and is being employed in the NHLDr. Dhiren Naidu is the head team physician for both the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos and the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. He likes that the K-D test puts the player under a different sort of stress than a simple balance or memory test, hopes that the K-D test will be a good addition, but isn’t ready to fully commit to it as the be all and end all of concussion tests.

My understanding is that the K-D test has been implemented by all 9 teams of the CFL this year, after being raved about by the staff that used it last year. This is being backed (to some degree, somehow.. I forget all the details), by the NFL, I believe, so that they can look into the benefits of implementing the K-D test down south. With all the lawsuits & potential liability, I don't think teams will be looking to jeopardize too many more players, as has been done in the past. The K-D test quantifies the results of brain injury where even the player can understand, quite simply, if he is ready & able to return to the field. It will be interesting to see how the overall results fare and the impact it has on sport overall.